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January 16, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

By Kiroku Hanai

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 1999

New Luddites at the gates

By David Howell

LONDON -- Ned Ludd was the leader of a mob, circa 1815, who went around smashing up new textile machinery in factories. Ludd calculated, correctly, that traditional jobs would be lost and familiar ways of life destroyed for thousands, even millions of British workers if the machines prevailed.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 20, 1999

Australia's republic: If not now, when?

By Myint Zan

Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently had an "audience" -- as some Australian media described it -- with Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Durban, South Africa. During the meeting, the prime minister of Australia personally informed the queen of the United...

COMMENTARY

Nov 20, 1999

Heading for a showdown

By Kenzo Uchida

Nov. 9 marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to the end of the Cold War. The international situation, liberated from ideological confrontations, has changed a great deal since then.

COMMENTARY

Nov 17, 1999

Japan on the verge of change?

By Hugh Cortazzi

LONDON -- A three-week visit to Japan in October left me somewhat more optimistic about the Japanese scene than I was six months or a year ago. Why? There seemed to be a greater recognition that Japan had to change if its economy were not only to deliver continued prosperity to the Japanese people but...

COMMENTARY

Nov 13, 1999

End of the House of Lords?

By David Howell

LONDON -- In the broader scheme of things, it is only a small incident. The final removal last week of 656 hereditary dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and lords from the law-making machinery of the British Parliament can hardly be described as earth-shattering. Nor is it a surprise, having been long...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 13, 1999

Three views of some troubled history

By Florian Coulmas

In March 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army took possession of the Dutch East Indies. The occupation lasted until Japan's surrender in mid-August 1945, although the disarmament and repatriation of Japanese troops took several months more to accomplish.

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

Nov 13, 1999

A cynic's guide to survival

By Constantine Pleshakov

For a writer, Russia is a treasure trove. It generates the most improbable story lines, the characters it harbors make Hollywood action heroes seem anemic, and its history is a thrilling mixture of triumph and tragedy. The country has seen the apostle Andrew and Adolf Hitler, Emperor Napoleon and Mongol...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 11, 1999

Crown tops bush hat, for now

By Roger Pulvers

Two definitive historical events of the past quarter-century have determined the agenda for 21st-century Australia: the dismissal of the Whitlam government by Governor General John Kerr in November 1975; and the defeat of the republican cause in the referendum of November 1999.

COMMENTARY

Nov 10, 1999

America should cut taxes, not the debt

By Doug Bandow

The standoff over the U.S. budget between the Republican Congress and Democratic president has had a curious byproduct: leaving more money to pay off the national debt. Some analysts are lobbying to devote future surpluses to the same purpose, perhaps eventually paying off the entire $5.6 trillion national...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 7, 1999

Prospects of a military coup in India

By Ramesh Thakur

This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Part 1 appeared in yesterday's Opinion page.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 7, 1999

Another Anglo-French beef

By Sarah Benton

LONDON -- So here we are, 60 days short of the new millennium and 66 years short of the date one thousand years ago (1066) when the French conquered Britain -- and we are in the middle of La Guerre du Rosbif, or the Beef War, or Le Front de la vache folle (the mad cow front) as the French daily paper...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.

Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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